Crappy Week, Lots of Chillaxin, Parade Season, Oops!

We have had a pretty not so much fun week last week.  It started out by Matthew doing something Monday that got him grounded for all week from outside and screen time (no tv, Wii, electronic use).  That made for a REALLY long week for me, but thankfully it is now over.  Hopefully Matthew learned his lesson!  In addition to Matthew being grounded we also got our rejection letter from our service dog application.  I was really upset to see that come.  When I called and told Aaron he tried to cheer me up by saying when one door closes another one opens.  I am anxiously awaiting for that other door to open up...Also last week was the last week Aaron could work overtime at work before the mandatory furlough and 20% pay cut started so he put in a 60+ hour week.  I didn't see much of him and summer time is not a good time to be single parenting it--that is all I will say!  To add more misery we found out our lawn which we thought was turning brown from the water restrictions was not brown from lack of water, but it was brown from a terrible grub infestation.  We have some mighty big patches of dead grass in our yard, but at least we now know what we are dealing with now.  To top off our horrible week, our air conditioner died on Friday evening after regular hours.  When we called the a/c company they couldn't send anyone that night and that we would have to call back the next day to see if they could pencil us in their schedule.  IT was a long HOT night!!  The bad thing was our a/c unit was new enough that the parts were still under warranty, but the labor was not going to be covered.  Did I mention this happened after hours so that would add to the extra cost?!  **SIGH**.  I regret telling Aaron two weeks ago that we had not had any crisis or bad luck happen to our family for a long time.  Wow, I will never say that again!!  Anyway, enough of my whine fest--it is a new week and hopefully things will be better than they were last week. I am keeping my fingers crossed!  In trying to put a positive spin on all this--it is times like this that let me fully appreciate when things are running smoothly, quietly and problem free!

 

Anyway, Sarah has been loving her T-ball class.  She still doesn't quite know what she is doing, but she is enjoying herself.

Like I said, she doesn't quite know everything that's going on, but she is enjoying herself:

 After T-ball one night Aaron came home to find a hawk was just standing around on our neighbor's roof.  When we came out to gawk at it, it stayed around just looking at us.  I don't know how long it stayed on the roof, but it was pretty neat to see.  The other birds didn't seem to be afraid of it either which is the funny thing.

 Since we were stuck at home all week (due to Matthew's grounding), we made the most of it.  Sarah came out one morning pretending to be a missionary.  She said, "Hey mom, I packed my bag and I am going on a mission."  Alrighty then.  What missionary couldn't use a tiara?  I looked inside her bag to find she had packed her sandals, some toy cars, and some other small toys.  I guess she is really prepared....hahaha.

 Later that morning she came over to me to tell me she had her tool belt on.  Poor thing you can tell she is surrounded by boys!  In her tool belt she had a sword, her safety goggles and a hammer.  She is prepared for whatever adventure she decides.  What an imagination!

 For lunch one day I decided to make some home made lunchables.  For whatever reason my kids always want these at the store and I never get them because they are overpriced for what you get.  I tried making my own so I gave everyone crackers, cheese (except Daniel) and meat to make their own concoctions.  Noah decided to make one huge cracker sandwich and tried to eat it all at the same time.  I think he got more crumbs on the floor and counter than he got in his mouth.

T-ball ended last week for Daniel and Aaron.  Aaron loves being able to help co-coach his son's team.  They also got their T-ball pictures back.  Daniel is on the second row standing next to Aaron.  When I got to see the picture I immediately started giggling.  It appears the poor kid on the front row was  having some....a...cup issues?!  I bet his mom is so glad that can now be immortalized for years to come....hahaha.  Hey I am just glad it wasn't my kid this time because it usually is my kid most the time....

 Since we were homebound this week I decided to make cookies.  I had lots of 'help' as you can see.  I think more cookies got eaten as dough than what ended up being baked.  Oh well everyone had fun and thankfully no one got salmonella because I used real eggs.  The nice thing was Daniel didn't have any problems with the cookies either.  I did have the Benadryl, Epi-pen and Zyrtec on standby, though.  Thankfully I didn't have to use them.  Maybe he has finally outgrown the egg allergy.  I can only hope!!  Also can you tell Sarah LOVES her tiara?!

 Josh and Daniel made their own fun.  They started out playing a game of Dominos when they got the bright idea to combine the Dominoes and Jenga pieces to make a HUGE domino trail to knock down.  It took them a bunch of times to set up and reset up because invariably one of them would accidentally knock one over and start a chain reaction and knock the whole set up over before they were done.  They got pretty frustrated at times, but in the end they had fun setting it up around the table over and over again.

 We got to watch some movies.  Whenever they started with movies, Noah was sweet enough to get everybody their pillow or pillow pet to use--even me.  He even grabbed the blanket for him and Sarah to share.  We tried to make the most of our week at home.

 Saturday morning was the Syracuse parade that we try to go to every year.  Awesomely enough the IHC clinic was doing free snow cones again this year--SAWEET!!!  I figured we have given them enough business with my and Sarah's stiches this last year we helped 'sponsor' the snow cones anyway :).  My kids were so excited!  Noah was especially excited since he got his own snow cone that he didn't have to share with anyone.

 They kids carried them to our parade spot and didn't even look up until they were gone.  It was great.  However, this time we were smart enough to remember the wet wipes because after they were done everyone needed a wet wipe bath to try and get off all the stickiness.

 Noah LOVED his and he probably got the stickiest from it as well.  He was a mess.  I was extra glad for the wet wipes after he got done!!

 Everyone was on their feet once the parade started.  That means CANDY, Frisbees and coupons.  Wahoo!!

 Sarah was excited to see some of the princesses.  She was so excited to see Snow Wipe (as Sarah calls her) that she wouldn't even look at the camera so I could take her picture.  We also got to see Tinkerbell, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, and others that I can't remember.

About half way through the parade Noah called it quits.  He went over and sat down on the lawn of the house we were in front of and started eating his candy.  What a funny boy!

 Thankfully Aaron got through to the a/c people during the parade.  They were able to pencil us in later that day.  So after the parade we went home to bake our brains in our house until they were able to come.  It was about this time I was reminded of the....um....scrumptious flavor of ice cream Ben and Jerry's came up with especially with having five boys in our household:

However, things weren't all bad.  The a/c guy came out and got to work changing the capacitor out.  He taught Aaron how to do it so when and if this happens again Aaron can take care of it himself.  Our a/c was still under warranty so we didn't have to pay for parts, but we were supposed to be responsible for labor.  When the a/c guy finished he started walking toward his truck.  Aaron asked him how much we owed and the guy then asked, "When did your full warranty expire?"  Aaron said,"In February."  The guy then told him that it was close enough and not to worry about payment.  The guy also said they had had a rash of bad capacitors about the same time our house was built.  Pretty crazy!  After the guy left Aaron then came in and told me what had happened.  I was so happy.  I then kiddingly asked if Aaron had hugged him after he told him that we didn't have to pay.  Aaron said,"I didn't hug him because if I had he might have charged us then :)." Oh that was a very nice surprise!!

 



 After the a/c was fixed we headed over to walk around the Syracuse days booths.  They had a face painting booth the kids were excited to try.  Everyone waited patiently for their turn.  Here's Sarah, Josh, and Daniel sitting down choosing what they wanted.  Matthew is waiting for his turn behind them.  Noah wanted nothing to do with it so he's chilling in the stroller behind the camera where you can't see him.

Sarah chose a butterfly, Daniel a baseball, Josh and running man and Matthew chose a baseball on his hand.

 We had a fun day.  When we got back home it was only 80 degrees in our house, but it was an improvement from earlier in the day.

Yesterday at church  I got a new team teacher.  Seeing as I have been in primary the whole time I have been in this ward it is nice to get to know someone else who hasn't been in primary the whole time I have.  We have different teaching styles so it will be interesting to see how things will work.  After church while I was fixing everyone lunch Noah got a hold of some scissors and went to town on his shirt.  It makes me sad to now have to retire this shirt because it has been passed down through all the boys.  We even got it as a hand me down, too.  Oh well, at least it lived a good life.  As for Noah good thing I love my little boy because he is quite the trouble maker!!  Here he is showing off he sweet handiwork:

I am glad to be starting a new fresh week.  Last week got really old really fast so hopefully this one will stay good....No wonder why my hair is starting to turn gray!!!